No application by Asian Tour since 2008

29 Aug 2019 / 11:30 H.

Picture used for representational purposes only.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Sports Commissioner’s Office (SCO) has confirmed it has not received any application from the Singapore-based organiser of professional golf tournament Asian Tour for events held in Malaysia, including the Sarawak Championship on Aug 18.

This was in light of a statement made by the organiser to clarify the matter.

“There has been an ongoing engagement with the Youth and Sports Ministry in Malaysia since the announcement of the tournament (Sarawak Championship) in July,” said the organiser in statement on Tuesday.

“We believe the sanctioning of our tournaments in Malaysia adhere to the regulations in place and in partnership with the domestic tour.”

However, SCO has not received any application from the organiser.

“Did they (Asian Tour) go through the right process? Can they prove that they have filed an application with us?” said an SCO licensing officer, who declined to be named.

“As an organiser, they should have known the procedure. In fact, they have not liaised with us since 2008. None of the events they organised were (approved by) us.”

Under the Sports Development (Licensing) Regulations 2019, applications must be made not less than 30 days prior to the event for local sporting events, whereas a timeframe of 90 days is required for international events.

License fees are RM500 and RM1,000 for local and international events respectively.

A fine of between RM50,000 and RM500,000 or imprisonment of up to five years, or both, will be imposed on those who fail to comply with the licensing requirement.

A one-year grace period is given, which was enforced from March 1 this year.

SCO has received about 400 applications as of August this year, compared with about 500 last year.